Why is it that foreign lawyers who earn an LL.M. from an ABA-accredited law school can’t even sit for the Washington State Bar Exam? Shocking, I know, but I have it on good authority this is true. You practice trademark law in Japan or Italy for a number of years, you get an LL.M. from, say, Harvard, and the WSBA won’t even let you take the bar exam here. So you go to New York or California — whose bar associations are perfectly willing to take your application fee and give you a shot at taking the exam — and you pass. Congratulations, you’ve passed one of the toughest bar exams in the U.S.! In a foreign language, no less. So can you now work as a lawyer in Washington? Not in private practice, you can’t. So you do what I imagine hundreds of highly-qualified lawyers in this situation do. You either work in New York or California, or you return to your home country. Either way, Washington loses.
This is nonsense. It’s high time we let these super lawyers sit for our exam. If they pass, we should welcome them as well-deserved members of the Washington State Bar.